Ballast Podcast

Informações:

Synopsis

Yes, ballast from the UK built Manhattan. Or some of it. This was one of the enticing tidbits that got us very interested in ballast here at Hakai Magazine and we decided to delve in. A podcast on ballast? Sure, why not! Join host Elin Kelsey as she finds ballast in the roads we travel on, the plants we eat, and the pests we fight. Ballast: it’s not what you think.

Episodes

  • Episode 5: The Ballast in the Sky

    14/10/2019 Duration: 17min

    Ballast: not just for ships and giggles.Ballast might be old technology, but in this final episode of the Ballast podcast we explore how this basic feat of engineering is now being used in planes and state-of-the-art building designs, and discuss how the future of shipping may never be the same. Will it include ballast?Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.

  • Episode 4: The Ballast in Your Life

    07/10/2019 Duration: 20min

    A little emotional ballast can help keep us afloat when life gets heavy.In this episode of Ballast, we sit in on Elin’s impromptu therapy session to explore ballast as a psychological metaphor and look at how ballast can lend emotional stability. We also look at how the concept of ballast has been twisted in dark ways throughout history to justify atrocities such as the Holocaust.Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.  

  • Episode 3: The Ballast of Living Things

    30/09/2019 Duration: 19min

    It’s a sink or swim world.Ballast doesn’t just help to stabilize objects on the surface of water; it comes in awfully handy underwater as well. In this episode we listen in on the vertical migrations of plainfin midshipmen, follow local adventure seeking freedivers to talk buoyancy and where to stash your ballast, learn how buoyancy control strategies of fish and cuttlefish inspired a water-free ballast system for ships, and find out which creatures have developed a penchant for swallowing stones.Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.

  • Episode 2: The Ballast of Colonization

    23/09/2019 Duration: 18min

    From introduced species to the slave trade, ballast has had a huge impact on our world.In this episode, host Elin Kelsey serves up a ballast-infused meal inspired by a ballast flora artist. Then she gets into the dark story of the slave trade, which was partly responsible for the ingredients, and steers us to former colonial outposts profoundly shaped by ballast—both the solid stuff and water. Ballast, it turns out, was a colonizer in its own right.Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.

  • Episode 1: The Hidden History of Ballast

    17/09/2019 Duration: 17min

    The surprising connections between British Columbia jade, the Bristol Blitz, and a Swedish sunken ship.Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.

  • Ballast Podcast - Trailer

    11/09/2019 Duration: 02min

    Ship ballast from the United Kingdom built Manhattan. Or some of it. This was one of the enticing tidbits that got us very interested in ballast here at Hakai Magazine and we decided to delve in. A podcast on ballast? Sure, why not!